debdiff - compare file lists in two Debian packages
debdiff [
options]
debdiff [
options] ...
deb1 deb2
debdiff [
options] ...
changes1 changes2
debdiff [
options] ...
--from deb1a deb1b ...
--to deb2a deb2b ...
debdiff [
options] ...
dsc1 dsc2
debdiff takes the names of two Debian package files (
.debs or
.udebs) on the command line and compares their contents (considering
only the files in the main package, not the maintenance scripts). It shows
which files have been introduced and which removed between the two package
files, and is therefore useful for spotting files which may have been
inadvertently lost between revisions of the package. It also checks the file
owners and permissions, and compares the control files of the two packages
using the
wdiff program. If you want a deeper comparison of two Debian
package files you can use the
diffoscope tool.
If no arguments are given,
debdiff tries to compare the content of the
current source directory with the last version of the package.
debdiff can also handle changes between groups of
.deb files in
two ways. The first is to specify two
.changes files. In this case, the
.deb files listed in the
.changes file will be compared, by
taking the contents of all of the listed
.deb files together. (The
.deb files listed are assumed to be in the same directory as the
.changes file.) The second way is to list the
.deb files of
interest specifically using the
--from ...
--to syntax. These
both help if a package is broken up into smaller packages and one wishes to
ensure that nothing is lost in the interim.
debdiff examines the
devscripts configuration files as described
below. Command line options override the configuration file settings, though.
If
debdiff is passed two source packages (
.dsc files) it will
compare the contents of the source packages. If the source packages differ
only in Debian revision number (that is, the
.orig.tar.gz files are the
same in the two
.dsc files), then
interdiff(1) will be used to
compare the two patch files if this program is available on the system,
otherwise a
diff will be performed between the two source trees.
-
--dirs, -d
- The default mode of operation is to ignore directory names
which appear in the file list, but they, too, will be considered if this
option is given.
- --nodirs
- Ignore directory names which appear in the file list. This
is the default and it can be used to override a configuration file
setting.
-
--move FROM TO, -m FROM TO
- It sometimes occurs that various files or directories are
moved around between revisions. This can be handled using this option.
There are two arguments, the first giving the location of the directory or
file in the first package, and the second in the second. Any files in the
first listing whose names begin with the first argument are treated as
having that substituted for the second argument when the file lists are
compared. Any number of --move arguments may be given; they are
processed in the order in which they appear. This only affects comparing
binary packages, not source packages.
-
--move-regex FROM TO
- This is the same as --move, except that FROM
is treated as a regular expression and the perl substitution
command s/^FROM/TO/ is applied to the files. In particular, TO can
make use of backreferences such as $1.
- --nocontrol
-
debdiff will usually compare the respective control
files of the packages using wdiff(1). This option suppresses this
part of the processing.
- --control
- Compare the respective control files; this is the default,
and it can be used to override a configuration file setting.
-
--controlfiles FILE[,FILE
...]
- Specify which control files to compare; by default this is
just control, but could include postinst, config and
so on. Files will only be compared if they are present in both
.debs being compared. The special value ALL compares all
control files present in both packages, except for md5sums. This option
can be used to override a configuration file setting.
- --wdiff-source-control
- When processing source packages, compare control files
using wdiff. Equivalent to the --control option for binary
packages.
- --no-wdiff-source-control
- Do not compare control files in source packages using
wdiff. This is the default.
-
--wp, --wl, --wt
- Pass a -p, -l or -t option to
wdiff respectively. (This yields the whole wdiff output
rather than just the lines with any changes.)
- --show-moved
- If multiple .deb files are specified on the command
line, either using .changes files or the --from/--to
syntax, then this option will also show which files (if any) have moved
between packages. (The package names are simply determined from the names
of the .deb files.)
- --noshow-moved
- The default behaviour; can be used to override a
configuration file setting.
-
--renamed FROM TO
- If --show-moved is being used and a package has been
renamed in the process, this command instructs debdiff to treat the
package in the first list called FROM as if it were called
TO. Multiple uses of this option are permitted.
-
--exclude PATTERN
- Exclude files whose basenames match PATTERN.
Multiple uses of this option are permitted. Note that this option is
passed on to diff and has the same behaviour, so only the basename
of the file is considered: in particular, --exclude='*.patch' will
work, but --exclude='debian/patches/*' will have no practical
effect.
- --diffstat
- Include the result of diffstat before the generated
diff.
- --no-diffstat
- The default behaviour; can be used to override a
configuration file setting.
- --auto-ver-sort
- When comparing source packages, do so in version
order.
- --no-auto-ver-sort
- Compare source packages in the order they were passed on
the command-line, even if that means comparing a package with a higher
version against one with a lower version. This is the default
behaviour.
- --unpack-tarballs
- When comparing source packages, also unpack tarballs found
in the top level source directory to compare their contents along with the
other files. This is the default behaviour.
- --no-unpack-tarballs
- Do not unpack tarballs inside source packages.
- --apply-patches
- If the old and/or new package is in 3.0 (quilt) format,
apply the quilt patches (and remove .pc/) before comparison.
- --no-apply-patches, --noapply-patches
- If the old and/or new package is in 3.0 (quilt) format, do
not apply the quilt patches before comparison. This is the default
behaviour.
-
--no-conf, --noconf
- Do not read any configuration files. This can only be used
as the first option given on the command-line.
-
--debs-dir directory
- Look for the .dsc files in directory instead
of the parent of the source directory. This should either be an absolute
path or relative to the top of the source directory.
-
--help, -h
- Show a summary of options.
-
--version, -v
- Show version and copyright information.
-
--quiet, -q
- Be quiet if no differences were found.
-
--ignore-space, -w
- Ignore whitespace in diffs.
The two configuration files
/etc/devscripts.conf and
~/.devscripts
are sourced by a shell in that order to set configuration variables. Command
line options can be used to override configuration file settings. Environment
variable settings are ignored for this purpose. The currently recognised
variables are:
- DEBDIFF_DIRS
- If this is set to yes, then it is the same as the
--dirs command line parameter being used.
- DEBDIFF_CONTROL
- If this is set to no, then it is the same as the
--nocontrol command line parameter being used. The default is
yes.
- DEBDIFF_CONTROLFILES
- Which control files to compare, corresponding to the
--controlfiles command line option. The default is
control.
- DEBDIFF_SHOW_MOVED
- If this is set to yes, then it is the same as the
--show-moved command line parameter being used.
- DEBDIFF_WDIFF_OPT
- This option will be passed to wdiff; it should be
one of -p, -l or -t.
- DEBDIFF_SHOW_DIFFSTAT
- If this is set to yes, then it is the same as the
--diffstat command line parameter being used.
- DEBDIFF_WDIFF_SOURCE_CONTROL
- If this is set to yes, then it is the same as the
--wdiff-source-control command line parameter being used.
- DEBDIFF_AUTO_VER_SORT
- If this is set to yes, then it is the same as the
--auto-ver-sort command line parameter being used.
- DEBDIFF_UNPACK_TARBALLS
- If this is set to no, then it is the same as the
--no-unpack-tarballs command line parameter being used.
- DEBDIFF_APPLY_PATCHES
- If this is set to yes, then it is the same as the
--apply-patches command line parameter being used. The default is
no.
- DEBRELEASE_DEBS_DIR
- This specifies the directory in which to look for the
.dsc and files, and is either an absolute path or relative to the
top of the source tree. This corresponds to the --debs-dir command
line option. This directive could be used, for example, if you always use
pbuilder or svn-buildpackage to build your packages. Note
that it also affects debrelease(1) in the same way, hence the
strange name of the option.
Normally the exit value will be 0 if no differences are reported and 1 if any
are reported. If there is some fatal error, the exit code will be 255.
debdiff-apply(1),
diffstat(1),
dpkg-deb(1),
interdiff(1),
wdiff(1),
devscripts.conf(5),
diffoscope(1)
debdiff was originally written as a shell script by Yann Dirson
<
[email protected]> and rewritten in Perl with many more features by
Julian Gilbey <
[email protected]>. The software may be freely redistributed
under the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License, version
2.